Competitions and challenges

Phase 1 (Activation) of the 2026-27 Conrad Challenge runs August 27 to October 30, 2026; Phase 2 (Innovation) closes January 8, 2027, with the Innovation Summit April 21-24, 2027. Student teams pitch a commercially viable solution to a real-world problem.

The largest hackathon in the world, built entirely on open NASA and partner space agency data. Teams spend a weekend on a real challenge written by NASA experts, spanning software, data science, hardware, design and science storytelling. Alberta hubs ran in both Calgary and Edmonton in 2025. The 2026 edition runs November 14 to 15 with registration opening August 26, 2026, so check the site for the confirmed Alberta locations.

The world's largest environmental sustainability competition for teenagers: identify a real environmental problem and design a solution, submitted as an Earth Prize Blueprint that ends in a video pitch. Register by January 10, 2027 and submit by January 31, 2027.

A free global pitch competition in two tracks: Business Innovation (a venture that makes money solving a customer problem) and Social Innovation (a venture with social or environmental impact). Submit a 3–5 page concept and a 60-second video; advancing teams hear back February 10, and finalists pitch at the summit.

Canada's largest health science competition for high school students, run by a chartered HOSA association since 2014. Members enter one of about 30 events, from medical terminology to veterinary science and medical law, and the top three in each earn a place at the International Leadership Conference. You join through a chapter at your own school, or start one: five students, a president and a teacher advisor. The online Fall Leadership Conference runs November 15–22, 2026; SLC 2027 is in Toronto, March 1–3, and is high-school only.

A science competition for Canadian and US students. Your team of 2 to 4 imagines a future technology, researches the science behind it and writes it up: a project description of up to 11 pages, an abstract, a bibliography and a launch flyer. High school teams (Grades 10 to 12) compete in their own division. First-prize students each get US$5,000 cash (or a larger savings bond), second prize US$2,500, and the eight finalist teams go to Washington, DC in June. Every student on a team that submits a complete project gets a certificate and a gift. Note that it asks for citizenship, not residency.

Lethbridge's competitive festival for music and speech arts. You perform for an adjudicator, solo or in a group, and can win awards. The 2027 festival runs April 12 to 23, and registration is open December 1 to January 29. The 2027 syllabus lists the classes and fees.

One of North America's largest competitive performing arts festivals, with over 3,000 entries a year. You perform for an adjudicator in music or speech arts, solo or in a group, and compete for more than $40,000 in scholarships. Registration for 2027 opens November 1, 2026 and closes January 31, 2027. Fees depend on your age, how long you perform and how many are on stage.

The Peace Country's competitive music festival. You perform for an adjudicator in classes from the Alberta and local syllabi, and top performers are featured in the Grand Concert. The 2027 festival runs March 21 to April 30, and entries close February 11, 2027. You register online through the festival site.

A free online pitch competition for high school students from 170+ countries. Alone or with up to four friends, you build a business idea with the provided Blue Ocean tools and templates, then submit a pitch video of under five minutes. There are cash prizes for students and prizes for their schools. Pitches are due February 21, 2027.

Students write Python code for a task set by ESA scientists, test it on the Astro Pi replica, and qualifying programs run on the Astro Pi computers aboard the International Space Station. Canada takes part as an ESA cooperating state. A shorter Mission Zero, about an hour of coding, is also open.

Memorize and recite poems from the Poetry In Voice anthology, including at least one written before the 21st century, in the English, French or bilingual stream. Submissions open February 1, 2027; senior semifinalists are named March 11 and finalists March 18.

An international high school project fair with nine categories: science, art, short film, music, robotics, entrepreneurship, speech, coding and artificial intelligence. Students submit a project online; finalists are announced March 25 and present in person at the finals in Rochester, New York.

Formerly the Ocean Awareness Contest: respond to the year's environmental theme with art, film, poetry, creative writing, music, dance or interactive work. The 2027 theme is "Nature of Truth: Environmentalism in an Age of Disinformation".

An ESA challenge to design a habitat on the Moon, open to Canada because Canada cooperates with ESA. Use any design tool you like, from 3D modelling to games, robotics or experiments. A teacher or educator registers the team and submits on the Moon Camp site. Every valid entry gets an ESA certificate and a place in the online gallery, and teams are invited to a livestream with an astronaut. Early certificates go to entries in by April 19, 2027. Only students up to 16 qualify.

Rigorous engineering challenge where high school teams design, program, and build industrial-size robots in a 6-week build season. Requires applied research in mechanics, CAD, and control systems. Many Alberta teams compete in the Canadian Rockies regional event.

Challenges like Energy Revealed, Eco 360 and Re-Energy prompt students to research local energy consumption or climate policy, then design and implement a data-backed emissions reduction strategy for their school or municipality.

Grade 9-12 teams design, build and program competition robots for game-based tournaments held locally across Alberta, fall through spring.

Distinct from the larger FRC, FTC teams design, build, and program smaller-scale robots using Java and Android-based technology. Requires applied research into control systems and computer vision. More accessible entry point than FRC with lower build costs.

The provincial association for school-based speech and debate in Alberta, running junior and senior tournaments in English and French across Language Arts, Drama, Social Studies and Science. Builds research, argument construction and public speaking skills, and sends qualifiers to national and international competitions. Students take part through a club at their school.

Team registration for the 2026 season is closed. iGEM's High School Competition is entered as a school team under a teacher acting as PI, not by individual students; teams design a synthetic biology project across the season for the international jamboree.

This challenge is not currently running. STEM Fellowship lists no active Big Data & AI Challenge cycle. Teams previously produced a peer-reviewed manuscript from open-data and AI research, with a finale in Calgary.

National innovation challenge where youth teams design and prototype STEM solutions to real-world problems. Teams receive access to industry mentors, workshops, and MindFuel's Connect2Innovate platform. 13+ years running with 5,000+ alumni.

Global tech education program where teams of young women identify a community problem, conduct user research, and build a mobile app or AI solution. Alberta participants can work remotely or through local hubs. Teams pitch to a panel of tech industry judges.

Applications close in mid-March each year, and the 2026 round closed 13 March. Teams of high school students propose an experiment to run on a real particle-accelerator beamline at CERN, and winning teams travel to carry it out.

A one-day engineering and geoscience challenge where high school teams solve timed, hands-on problems. Regionals feed the provincial finals.

National cyber defence competition for Grade 9-12 teams, running October to May. Your teacher registers the team between April and October, not students.

Environmental research and proposal competition. Students research a local watershed issue, write a detailed solution proposal, and compete for funding to implement their project in their community. Top Alberta entries advance to regional and national judging.

Multidisciplinary engineering competition where teams use CAD and CAM software to research aerodynamics, design, and race miniature compressed-air powered F1 cars. Alberta teams actively compete at national championships. Builds skills in design, manufacturing, and project management.

Canada's largest hackathon: 36 hours of building at Waterloo with 1,000+ students, travel, food and lodging covered. Applications reopen next summer.

Registration for the regional qualifiers opens in early January. Alberta students compete in trades and technology contests at regionals, with winners advancing to the provincial competition and on to Skills Canada nationals.

A three-day environmental science competition. Teams of five work through field stations and written tests in aquatic ecology, forestry, soils and land use, wildlife and a current issue, then give an oral presentation. The winning team represents Alberta at the international NCF-Envirothon.

A 24-hour in-person hackathon at UCalgary where teams build a project from scratch. High school students compete in a separate prize tier with first-year university students, so you are not up against senior engineers. Free to enter; the 2027 event has not been posted yet.

A philosophy essay contest for Canadian high school students: answer one of three questions in at most 1,200 words. Each essay is read blind by a high school teacher and a U of T philosophy professor. The 2026 deadline has passed; watch the page for the 2027 questions.

The world's oldest international schools writing competition, run since 1883. Write up to 1,000 words on the year's theme; one winner is chosen from each Commonwealth region, including the Americas, and every entrant receives a Gold, Silver, Bronze or Participation certificate. The 2026 deadline was April 30.

Design a free-orbiting space settlement anywhere in the solar system, from structure to how people live there. More than 29,000 students from 31 countries entered in 2026. Top entrants can present at the International Space Development Conference (2027: May 27–30).

A free team competition built on a real client case: research, build a long-term strategy in the Wharton Investment Simulator, and submit four deliverables from October to December. Teams are judged on the strategy and how well they defend it, not on portfolio returns. Registration for 2026–27 closed September 11, 2026; the next season opens each August.

A free capture-the-flag hacking competition from Carnegie Mellon: solve security puzzles in cryptography, web exploitation, forensics and reverse engineering. The picoGym practice site runs year-round with past challenges and guided lessons, so you can start well before the spring competition.

An international essay prize in ten subjects: economics, history, international relations, law, philosophy, politics, psychology, public policy, science and technology, and theology, with three questions each. The 2026 cycle opened registration February 2, closed it March 31, and took essays until May 31. Free at the standard deadline.

The long-running North American awards for teen art and writing, with more than 100,000 entries a year across art and writing categories. The 2027 Awards open October 1, 2026, with regional deadlines from early December to early January; Canadian students are placed in an art region and a writing region by their postal code.

Give a 5–7 minute speech on one of five agriculture, agri-tech or agri-food topics set each year. In 2026, entries ran February 5 to June 19, preliminaries were held June 27 and July 10, and the top four from each division advanced to the July 11 final at the Stampede, with a travel credit to the national final.

A free programming contest with a dedicated high school division: mostly approachable problems with a few harder ones, solved in C++, Python, Java, C, Kotlin, Rust or Haskell. Lunch is provided on site. The 2026 contest ran March 7, with registration closing two days before.

A free team programming contest run by UCalgary's Competitive Programming Club, open to Calgary high school students as well as university students, with a second division for newer competitors. Register on Eventbrite; the 2026 contest ran March 28 and has sold out in past years.

Remembrance-themed contests in three forms: a poster, an original essay or poem, or a video. Poster and literary entries are judged at the branch, then provincial, then national level; video entries go online from September 1 to December 15, 2026. Ask your nearest Legion branch for its poster and literary deadline.

An international team contest where high school students pick one of several open-ended real-world problems, build a mathematical model and write up their solution as a report. Teams have 14 consecutive days in the contest window to download the problem, work on it and submit electronically, under a teacher advisor.

A national improv theatre program for high school teams. Teams of up to eight practise through the school year with trainer support, compete at one of 15 regional tournaments, and top teams go to the national festival in Ottawa. In Alberta the tournament is run by Rapid Fire Theatre, which handles registration.

A national STEM contest where a class or club uses science and technology to tackle a problem in its own community. Your teacher enters by answering three short questions: the local challenge, your STEM solution, and how it will last. Finalists build out their projects. Prizes are Samsung technology vouchers for the school, up to $50,000 for first place. The 2026 entry window was January 12 to February 27.

A national classical music competition with a first round run by local chapters. Albertans audition with the Calgary Chapter, which also takes Edmonton candidates. Top performers go to the national final in Montreal (July 2 to 10 in 2026), where category winners are invited to play with a Canadian orchestra and scholarships are awarded. Each chapter sets its own registration deadline and fee, so contact the Calgary Chapter directly.

Canada's largest high school hackathon, held at the University of Waterloo with 200+ students building tech projects over a weekend. It is free, with meals and swag provided by sponsors, and beginners are welcome. The site does not mention travel funding, so an Alberta student would pay their own way to Ontario. JAMHacks 10 is over and JAMHacks 11 dates are not posted yet.

Edmonton's competitive music and speech arts festival, formerly the Edmonton Kiwanis Music Festival, with over 2,500 performances a year. You perform for an adjudicator, solo or in a group, and can enter special scholarship classes. It runs under Alberta Music Festival Association standards. Registration for 2026 closed February 5, so expect a similar deadline for 2027.

Medicine Hat's competitive music festival, where students perform for an adjudicator, from soloists to choirs, orchestras and musical theatre. It is a member of the Alberta Music Festival Association, so strong performers can be recommended on to the provincial festival. The 2027 festival runs March 8 to 21. For the 2025 festival, registration ran November 11 to January 16, so expect a similar window.

Central Alberta's competitive performing arts festival, with more than 1,000 student performers. You perform for an adjudicator and can be recommended on to the Alberta provincial festival; in 2026 two Red Deer entries took first place in their provincial classes. The 2027 festival runs April 13 to 15 at Red Deer Polytechnic and April 26 to May 1 at Sunnybrook United Church. Registration details for 2027 are not posted yet.

The provincial finals for Alberta's local music festivals. You cannot enter directly: first win a recommendation at your local member festival, then compete for provincial standings and scholarships. Alberta's top provincial competitors can go on to the Canada West Performing Arts Festival, which is in Victoria, BC on July 22 to 24, 2027.

Build a satellite the size of a pop can with a small computer and sensors, and fly it. Teams of up to six get a free CanSat kit by mail and follow tutorials over the fall and winter. In spring, Beginner teams' CanSats are dropped from a drone, while Advanced teams travel to Lethbridge to launch theirs by rocket to about 1 km and transmit live data. The top Advanced team represents Canada at the European Space Agency's CanSat event in the Netherlands. Registration for the 2026-27 challenge is open now.

Canada's high school quiz competition, running since 1966. Teams of four buzz in on fast trivia questions across every subject. Alberta holds a provincial tournament each spring: about 216 students played at Paul Kane High School on April 18, 2026, and the winners went to the national championship in May. Ask a teacher whether your school has a team, or to start one.